• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Upgrading my card, should I go for top end ATI/NVIDIA or change something else on my system first.

Associate
Joined
28 Oct 2004
Posts
650
Location
Liverpool UK
Hey All,
I've been a Nvidia user for years now from the 7800GTX, 8800GTX to GTX280. Every card I have had has lead me to claim on the warranty at least once (8800gtx claimed three times).

Unfortunately my GTX280 card packed in 18 months into the warranty (last month) - and with BFG liquidating has left me using an 8600GT card(meaning I'm gaming on my imac atm :().

My specs are in my sig. I game in 2560*1600 so require a high spec card. I've heard whispers that I may need a better spec machine to get the most out of the top end Nvidia / ATI cards - how true is this?

I'm thinking of moving away from Nvidia for good. The cards just run too hot, my GTX 280 went up to 80c-90c under load and i'm convinced that's why the cards have such a short life span.

Saying that i've never had any driver problems with games and believe the new Nvidias are cooler.

Are the driver issues really THAT bad with ATI?

I've been reading a lot and am either going to go for the 6990 (if out before Christmas), 6970 or 580GTX and a solid state hard drive.

Thanks in advance
 
Last edited:
The standard advice would be to wait till next month to see how the AMD 6900 series does in terms of performance and price compared to the top-end Nvidia card - GTX 580.

However, if you are sitting with a 30in screen, a 8600GT and a burning desire to play games then buying a GTX 580 today would not be a bad choice. It is the fastest single-GPU card about, rather quiet, but also rather expensive.

If you feel you can wait, then I would do this - hopefully AMD will do well with the 6900s, which would provide you with another good option and drive down the price of the GTX 580.
 
With reference to AMD CAT drivers I personally think they are good, Xfire was hit and miss for me at first but work very well now.

I have always been with ATI just because it was a known entity but always wondered why Nvidia always got good developer backing which made me feel maybe they are the better card manufacture ? and now the 580 is out i just want to try it out "if i had the money" :rolleyes:

I do not game at your res but your processor seems good to me ?
 
Going by the spec in your sig, I'd say you have a very good platform already. At 2560*1600 res you will be far more GPU restricted than most people (2560*1600 has very nearly twice the number of pixels as the 1920*1080 res that the majority of people run), so in relative terms GPU power is going to be more important for you.

I would say; see how far you can push your CPU. A 500Mhz overclock on an i7 is not exactly huge. I don't know exactly what model of i7 you have, or what CPU cooling system you are using, but most people can hit at least 3.6Ghz with any i7. Most i7-920 / 930 users are hitting 4Ghz+ (I get 4.2Ghz on my 930).

So, I think you're all set to grab a new GPU without upgrading the rest of your system. That said, it might be worth waiting a couple more weeks to see what ATIs 6970 brings to the table. If the rumours of a 1920-shader part running an updated "4D shader" configuration are true, then it could well outperform the GTX580. The 6970 is due on Nov 22nd, but there are rumours that it could slip past this deadline.
 
Going by the spec in your sig, I'd say you have a very good platform already. At 2560*1600 res you will be far more GPU restricted than most people (2560*1600 has very nearly twice the number of pixels as the 1920*1080 res that the majority of people run), so in relative terms GPU power is going to be more important for you.

I would say; see how far you can push your CPU. A 500Mhz overclock on an i7 is not exactly huge. I don't know exactly what model of i7 you have, or what CPU cooling system you are using, but most people can hit at least 3.6Ghz with any i7. Most i7-920 / 930 users are hitting 4Ghz+ (I get 4.2Ghz on my 930).

So, I think you're all set to grab a new GPU without upgrading the rest of your system. That said, it might be worth waiting a couple more weeks to see what ATIs 6970 brings to the table. If the rumours of a 1920-shader part running an updated "4D shader" configuration are true, then it could well outperform the GTX580. The 6970 is due on Nov 22nd, but there are rumours that it could slip past this deadline.

I must admit I haven't exactly tried to overclock it any further. I have an i7 920 bloomfield. I have a coolermaster v8 cooler. Definitely going to try and push this further. I have just been using the auto overclock feature of my EX58-UDR3 gigabyte board. Going to wait for the 6970 for sure - cheers.
 
Back
Top Bottom